루이제 린저의 동양 호기심과 ‘밝은 독재’ 국가 북한, 그리고 윤이상

Abstract

Using Louise Rinser's Nord-Koreanisches Reisetagebuch as the primary text, this study examines the mutual "entanglement" between Germany's critical intellectual society, the Korean community in Germany, and the North Korean government. Yi-sang Yun appealed to L. Rinser for international solidarity to unify the Korean Peninsula. The North Korean government invited her to promote their regime and strengthen international anti-fascist and anti-imperialist solidarity by bringing in renowned West German intellectuals for political purposes. She accepted the invitation, but her main objective was to explore whether North Korea had a distinct socialist aspect beyond the Soviet-style socialist system. L. Rinser's perception of North Korea was not entirely free from orientalism. However, by utilizing the East as a space to explore alternative possibilities of Western civilization, rather than treating it as a "real other," she subverted the Western belief in superiority over the East that orientalism fosters. What she encountered during her travels in North Korea was not an authentic socialism, but rather an idealized version with a human face. She witnessed the totalitarian nature of North Korea, but also noted the absence of overt suppression, which she expressed through the paradoxical term "bright dictatorship." Rinser recognized that the North Korean people were living in self-reflection, not because of coercion, but due to their dedication to leader Kim Il-sung, which she attributed to Confucian tradition. This perspective aligns with Masayuki Suzuki's "leader system socialism" theory and Bruce Cumings' "socialist corporatism" theory.